HOSPITAL PROCEDURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21098, 4 February 1932, Page 10

HOSPITAL PROCEDURE.

TREATMENT OF PATIENTS.

OTHER ESCAPES RECALLED. LAST CASE IN DECEMBER. Tlio circumstances under which prisoners are sent to the Auckland Hospital for treatment, were outlined last evening by Dr. C. H. Tewsley, the polico surgeon, who acts as prison doctor. Dr. Tewsley stated that whenever a prisoner reported sick, ho was called to the gaol, and after an inspection determined whether the man could bo treated in the prison infirmary or whether he required hospital attention.

Minor casualties were kept in the infirmary, where they were cared for by gaol attendants, but any caso which required nursing or special treatment had to be taken to hospital. Only small operations wera performed at the prison, as it would be necessary to procure nurses to assist during the operation. Occasionally an assistant aided the doctor in an operation at the gaol, the patient then being left to the caro of the prison attendants, but the more usual course was to have the prisoner removed.

Dr. Tewsley added that the removal of Cudby's eye could not be undertaken at the gaol, his being a caso for the hospital. The prison superintendent, Mr. J. Dickison, said that prisoners were taken to hospital at the request of the doctor, with whom the decision rested in each case. Ho himself did not take the responsibility of deciding whether tlio man's condition was serious enough to warrant his removal, that being the duty of the surgeon.

Escapes from hospital by prisoners undergoing treatment have occurred at various times. The most recent case was the escape of a dangerous criminal, Thomas William Wilson, who was not guarded, and who walked out of a ward on the evening of December 2. This man has riot been traced. Like Cudby, ho was in hospital with eye trouble.

In July, 1930. another prisoner who was being treated for eye trouble also escaped during tlio night, lie was not heard of again for six months, when he surrendered himself to the police at Wellington. When he made 11is escape this man dressed himself in another patient's clothes. Two years of liberty were enjoyed l>v a man who escaped in April, 1925. Although his trail had been picked up several limes in the Waikato and Thames Valley districts he eluded arrest until June, 1927, when he was recaptured at Te Aroha. An habitual criminal escaped in December, 1927, but was free for only one day. As he had a crushed foot and was forced •to use crutches, his apprehension was comparatively easy.